Magsayo outpoints Russell to take featherweight title and end long reign

Matias stops Ananyan to avenges loss in an action-packed rematch; Lukas and Nyambayar battle to draw

Jan 23, 2022

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Mark Magsayo, who grew up in abject poverty in the Philippines, achieved a lifelong goal by winning the WBC featherweight world title on Saturday night.

In doing so, the Manny Pacquiao-promoted Magsayo edged long-reigning titlist Gary Russell by majority decision in the main event of a Showtime-televised tripleheader at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

One judge scored the fight 114-114 but the two others scored it 115-113 for Magsayo, who ended Russell’s long title reign.

“This is my dream,” a joyful Magsayo said. “My dream just came true. Woooo! Ever since I was a kid, this was my dream. I’m so proud that I’m a champion now. Thank you so much to the Filipino fans for the support.”

Russell, who was hampered for most of the fight by an injured right shoulder, had held the 126-pound belt since 2015, a run of 6 years, 10 months, which made him the longest-reigning current male titleholder in boxing.

Despite Russell’s lengthy tenure with the belt, he was making only his sixth title defense. He fought once per year from 2015 to 2020, did not box at all in 2021 and was returning to the ring for the first time in 23 months to face Magsayo, who earned his position as Russell’s mandatory challenger with a highlight-reel 10th-round knockout of former junior featherweight titlist Julio Ceja in a title elimination bout on the Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas undercard on Aug. 21 in Las Vegas.

The aggressive Magsayo got off to a good start when he nailed Russell with a powerful right hand and a right-left combination in the first round. He used a steady body attack to try to wear down Russell.

Russell, a southpaw, never really was able to get going on offense because in the fourth round he visibly injured his right shoulder. After the round, the ringside doctor went to his corner to examine him and the fight was allowed to continue.

However, Russell stopped using his right hand — his jab and hook hand — and was rendered a one-armed fighter.

“I believe I have a torn tendon in my right shoulder,” Russell said. “I haven’t competed in almost two years. This is what true champions do. I wanted to step into the ring and display my superiority regardless of an injury. I gave him a boxing lesson. I gave him a boxing lesson the whole way through. I landed clean whenever I wanted to. I couldn’t use my right arm but I was still able to throw effective shots and touch him at will.”

Even with Russell at such a massive disadvantage, Magsayo (24-0, 16 KOs), 26, could not dominate and Russell was able to win some rounds just using his left hand, although his punch output was extremely limited.

According to CompuBox statistics, Magsayo landed 150 of 543 punches (28 percent) and Russell landed just 69 of 323 (21 percent). Magsayo outlanded Russell in every round and Russell, who was averaging throwing 37 jabs per round, threw 64 the entire fight because of his damaged right shoulder.

Russell (31-2, 18 KOs), a 33-year-old southpaw from Capitol Heights, Maryland, threw 22 jabs apiece in the first and second round, 17 in the third and then, as the shoulder became an issue, just two in the fourth, one in the fifth and none the rest of the fight.

“Yes, I know that I hurt him in the third round. I hit him with a good shot so that’s why he got hurt,” Magsayo said. “I took advantage of it because he was only using one hand. This was my opportunity to follow through. Coach Freddie (Roach) was telling me to use good combinations, follow through and this is going to be your dream. He said this is your chance to become a champion and now I am a champion! Wooo! He couldn’t jab me. He was using only one hand.”

Russell, who had swelling over his left eye in the later rounds, landed some solid straight left hands but not nearly enough to win enough rounds to keep his title.

Russell won the 12th round on all three scorecards to gain a draw on one of them.

Russell said he injured his shoulder in training about two weeks before the fight, which was another issue for him going into the bout. His training camp was also impacted by the illness of his father and trainer Gary Russell Sr., 62, who missed most of training camp and had to have one of his feet amputated last month due to complications from diabetes.

“But I went through with the fight because I’m a true champion and this is what warriors do,” said Russell, who had his brothers and longtime assistant trainer Rodrigo Mosquera in his corner while his father watched from a wheelchair at ringside. “I’m going to fight regardless what the situation is. I refuse to not compete and display my skill set to my fans and the people that came out to show support and love. Please believe that I will be back. I still want these fights. I’ll get my shoulder fixed and we boogying. I felt like I still won the fight to be honest with you.

“It’s an old injury. I had this back before the 2008 Olympics. They wanted me to go and get surgery on that but I refused to get surgery on it. They said I can strengthen the muscles around it to protect the tendon. I did that and I was able to get through a lot of my fights. But I hurt it in my training camp. But once again, I’m a true soldier. I’m a dog at the end of the day. I refused to push this fight back and I fought with one arm. He had his hands full with a fighter with arm and I gave him a boxing lesson.”

Asked if he wanted a rematch, Russell was quick to answer.

“Hell yeah,” he said. “Would he want a rematch? That’s the question.”

Magsayo, who will have other options, did not commit to one.

“It’s up to my promotional team, he said. “But I’m willing to fight anybody. I’m a champion now!”

Matias avenges loss

Junior welterweight Subriel Matias avenged his only defeat with a ninth-round knockout of Petros Ananyan in an all-out slugfest.

Although Matias was leading 89-81, 89-81 and 88-82 at the time of the stoppage, it was a grueling fight in which both men took considerable punishment. But in the end, Matias avenged his lone loss, in which he had been knocked down in a 10-round unanimous decision to Ananyan on the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder II undercard in February 2020 in Las Vegas.

“Two years ago Ananyan knocked me off my path to the world title. I've been waiting for the fight ever since then. This is what I trained to do,” Matias said through an interpreter. “My goal was to get him out of there. I had to prove in this fight that I was the better man. I'm thankful for the opportunity to face a warrior like Ananyan. If you don't take him seriously, he'll beat you.

“This is the fight that I always wanted. Ever since my defeat to him, I wanted to avenge the loss. When you’re sure about yourself and you know that you have the skills that you have, you take the rematch.”

Like their first bout, the rematch was a fast-paced, all-action battle as they swapped hard sots throughout the fight. Matias was effective with his uppercut and the New York-based Russian Ananyan (16-3-2, 7 KOs), 33, landed many left hooks.

There was action from the outset and then it really ignited in the fourth round. In the fifth round, referee Mary Glover issued a third warning for a low blow to Matias, who was on the verge of lowing a point.

Matias (18-1, 18 KOs), 29, of Puerto Rico, went low again in the seventh round and Glover penalized him one point. Following the deduction, Matias and Ananyan battled toe to toe in as fierce a round as you will see as they clobbered each other with punches non-stop.

Matias’ constant head shots finally appeared to slow Ananyan down in the ninth round. His face was swelling, he abandoned his jab and was eating thunderous shots.

In the final seconds of the ninth round, Matias landed a powerful left hook to the chin that dropped a bloodied Ananyan. He beat the count and the round ended, but when the ringside doctor examined him in the corner she did not like how he responded and Glover stopped the bout upon the doctor’s advice.

Nyambayar, Lukas fight to draw

Former featherweight world title challenger Tugstsogt Nyambayar and late replacement Sakaria Lukas fought to a split draw in the opening bout of the telecast, which was contracted at 128 pounds and marred by a missed call by referee Eddie Claudio.

One judge scored it 96-94 for Lukas, one had it 96-94 for Nyambayar and one had it 95-95, which has to be considered a major disappointment for the Los Angeles-based Nyambayar (12-2-1, 9 KOs), 29, a 2012 Olympic silver medalist from Mongolia.

Lukas (25-1-1, 17 KOs), 37, of Namibia, took the fight on 10 days’ notice when original opponent Vic Pasillas (16-1, 9 KOs) was forced out because of a positive Covid-19 test. Lukas then endured a 27-hour trip to Atlantic City for the fight and fought well enough to deserve the victory.

In the eighth round, Lukas landed a clean left hand to the chin that dropped Nyambayar, but Claudio ruled it a slip. After the fight, Claudio was showed multiple replays of the punch landing, but claimed he still did not see a punch.

Lukas was upset that Claudio missed the call.

“Everyone saw it was a knockdown that should have given me a split-decision win,” Lukas said. “I fought my heart out and I deserved the win. I took the fight on short notice, but I was ready to win. I believe I won the fight, but I can't do anything about the decision. We had the fans behind us. They know what happened.

“I want to face the winner of the main event. This was an amazing opportunity for me and I showed up.”

Nyambayar said he did not think it was a legitimate knockdown in the eighth round.

“I thought I won the fight and I didn't believe it was a knockdown,” Nyambayar said. “It was a hard fight, especially against an opponent on short notice. My goal is to fight for the world title again.”

Nyambayar dropped to 1-2-1 in his last four bouts. He was coming off a unanimous decision loss challenging then-interim junior lightweight titlist Chris Colbert. He also dropped a unanimous decision challenging Gary Russell Jr. for his featherweight world title in February 2020.

Photos: Amanda Westcott/Showtime

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Fight Freaks Unite

Magsayo outpoints Russell to take featherweight title and end long reign

Matias stops Ananyan to avenges loss in an action-packed rematch; Lukas and Nyambayar battle to draw

Matias avenges loss

Nyambayar, Lukas fight to draw

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